Courtney Davis, Wendy's Wonderful Kids intern; Courtney Angeles, program supervisor for Adoption; and Libby Hein, chief program officer, celebrate National Adoption Day at the King County Courthouse in Seattle.
After three years in our Wendy's Wonderful Kids program that helps foster children find permanent homes, Eythan will be officially adopted by his aunt today for National Adoption Day.
At its inception, Children’s Home Society of Washington was an adoption agency. In the past 120 years, we have transformed into an integrated, comprehensive multiservice provider that helps children in their current home or finds them new families. Every year, we celebrate our adoption legacy during National Adoption Day, which is set for today.
For us, it's a time to honor families created through adoption. This annual celebration was designed to raise awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in foster care. Nationally, on average, there are more than 100,000 children who are legally free waiting to be adopted. In Washington state, the average is more than 3,000 children. These children are unable to return to their birth parents and will only leave foster care by being adopted or aging out of the system at age 18. Research shows children who age out of foster care are more at risk for homelessness, dropping out of school, early pregnancy, unemployment and involvement in the criminal justice system.
Children need families for life and older children from ages 8-17 in foster care are especially at risk for aging out of the system. Our Wendy's Wonderful Kids program seeks to find homes for these older children by employing the child-focused recruitment model from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. In this model, our specialized adoption recruiters partner with the waiting child to seek out families within their past or existing network, or when that's not possible, waiting adoptive families. Our recruiters work closely with the child and their matched family to ensure a healthy and timely transition as well as provide support through finalization. Since 2010, our recruiters have facilitated the adoptions of approximately 125 children from the foster care system.
If you are interested in opening your heart and home to some amazing children, click here.
Courtney Angeles is the program supervisor for Adoption at Children’s Home Society of Washington.